MacBook shuts off during startup

I have a macbook I got in 08 that is running leopard. Ok so after running Onyx it told me that the volume needed to be repaired. I inserted the install disk and ran disk utility and the volume repair, but it told me it couldn't be fixed. So I quit out of all that and restarted my laptop, but now it won't get past the blue loading screen. The little wheel just goes and goes then my MacBook shuts off. I can still run the Mac os x installer. When i go again to disk utility I can see the Macintosh hd tab and before I couldn't. Is this a good sign?Can anybody please help? Should i just try to do a restore, if it would let me or?? This is my first time dealing with a problem with a mac and I don't even know where to start.

For $100 you can get DiskWarrior. It can fix things that Disk Utility can't. Perhaps it can help.

Otherwise, and for free, use Disk Utility ro reformat (erase) the drive. That will get rid of the disk corruption. You will then have to reinstall OS X and restore your data from backups. Had you been using Time Machine?

Thanks for responding. Yes, I have used time machine, although I stopped it from backing up data about a year ago (big mistake). I was wondering if it would be best to restore with time machine or do a restore and then connect the external hd to get my data manually. Because have I changed my login name from the last backup and I don't know if that would cause any extra problems. I really don't want to lose anymore data.

I was also wondering how to go about using diskwarrior. Is it a separate disk? Because right now I don't know how I would get the install disk to eject from the laptop.

The next time you start up, hold down the trackpad button. That should eject the disc. You can then insert the DiskWarrior disc.

I don't know about Time Machine enough to answer that question if you choose to restore. If your last year's worth of data is valuable, you might want to try DiskWarrior first--it really does fix all kinds of problems.

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